1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a vacuum pump which operates to deliver a gas from the inlet side to the exhaust side under conditions ranging from viscous flow conditions to molecular flow conditions, and more particularly to a vacuum pump composed of helically threaded cylinders, which is capable of developing high back pressure.
2. Prior Art
One typical molecular drag pump for discharging a gas comprises helically threaded cylinders. Such a molecular drag pump is relatively simple in construction and can relatively easily be manufactured, but is disadvantageous in that it develops only relatively low back pressure. More specifically, the radial gap defined between a rotatable cylinder and an outer stationary cylinder disposed therearound, and the radial gap defined between the rotatable cylinder and an inner cylinder disposed therein, allow the gas to leak therethrough. Because of the gas leakage through these radial gaps, the back pressure developed by the pump is relatively low. Therefore, it has been customary to employ a roughing pump such as a hydraulically operated vacuum pump to reduce the pressure at the outlet side of the molecular drag pump down to a pressure level ranging from 1 to 100 Torr.